Pedersen said after his win: “A lot changes for anyone who wins the World Championships, so it’s going to change a lot for me.

“I’m finished with playing the underdog. I think that’s going to be pretty much impossible from now on. That’s a new situation and I have to race in another way from now on.”

The decisive moment for Pedersen came with 47km left to race, as he bridge across from the peloton to join Stefan Küng (Sui) and Lawson Craddock (USA) in the breakaway.

After Mathieu van der Poel (Ned) and Matteo Trentin (Ita) then launched their own attacks from the bunch, Pedersen found himself in a powerful breakaway that would survive to fight for the win.

Van der Poel was dropped on the final lap of the 14km finishing circuit, which set up a three-rider sprint between Pedersen, Trentin and Küng.

Trentin launched his sprint first with 200m to race but faded fast, allowing Pedersen to spin p and take the rainbow jersey, with Küng finishing third.

“It was not the plan to attack at exactly at that moment,” he said, looking back at the moment he bridged across to Craddock and Küng.

“But the plan was to play me out in the early final. We hoped that [Michael] Valgren or [Jakob] Fuglsang would jump across. But then suddenly, Van der Poel and Trentin arrived from behind with none of the two other Danish guys.

“After that, I just hoped for the best and I hoped the decision I took would go my way today.

“The final lap, I was just hoping for medal. When Van der Poel got dropped, I was 99 per sure I would get a medal.

“Then in the last 500 metres, it was everything or nothing.”

The weather had a huge impact on the racing, with only 46 of the 197 starters finishing the race in torrential downpours.

Race organisers opted to start later, change the course, removing two of the three climbs and increasing the number of finishing laps from seven to nine.

“It definitely changed our tactics and we had to find another way to race,” Pedersen said.

“Instead of attacking on the climbs during the big loop, we decided to wait until we hit the circuit and we wanted to work from there and put some pressure one.

“The delay was okay. It would have been nice to know it yesterday, then at least we could sleep for an extra half an hour.”

Pedersen has been threatening to break through with a significant win since 2018, when he sailed away to finish second in the Tour of Flanders behind Niki Terpstra.